Day Trip to Lamanai

Bruce and I were lucky enough to get away for a day trip to see the Mayan ruins at Lamanai. It was an amazing (and amazingly long) day. Our trusty guide, Daniel, took us on a boat, a van, and another boat until we finally reached Lamanai. Here’s a map to show where things are. (We started on Ambergris Caye.)

The journey itself was really informative — on our first boat we saw lots of mangroves.

The mangroves

Once we stopped at this little village …

The first stop on the way to Lamanai

… we took a van on perhaps the bumpiest ride ever to our next boat. We picked up two more passengers (there were three couples total — us, a couple from New York, and a couple from London) and headed out. First, Daniel took us to see some spider monkeys — and he lured them right out of the jungle and into our boat!

She walked on board upright

Only the female came on board, but she quickly made a friend.

The female spider monkey made a friend

Then we continued on the rest of the jungle tour (we saw a variety of lizards, birds and bats, but no crocodiles because the river was already high due to early rains). Finally, we reached Lamanai.

Lamanai welcome sign

The ruins were amazing, and Daniel told us there are hundreds there that haven’t even been investigated. This is the tallest one — Bruce and I climbed about half-way up before being spooked by the steep stairs (and the thought of getting back down).

Long shot of the tallest ruin